Pages

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Tell me About it Tuesday: Welcome Aurelia Evans!

This week on Tell me About it Tuesday, I have fellow Total-E-Bound author, Aurelia T. Evans! I am excited to hear about her debut erotic novel, Winter Howl.She also let me torture her a lil with the interview questions. Hehehe.

About Aurelia:She is an erotic writer
with a fondness for horror and the supernatural. Her short stories are featured
in several anthologies, including Amber Dawn's Fist of the Spider Woman and Mitzi Szerato's Thrones of Desire. Her debut erotic novel, Winter Howl, is now available at Total-E-Bound. When she isn't
writing, she enjoys watching horror films and making cookies.

Q. Do you do any special research for your novels?I loathe research, but when the
opportunity calls for it, I will grudgingly leave my story flow and look up
something if I simply must know. Fortunately, most of my stories are set in a
generalized “present time.” Minimal researching for that. It’s why I’ll
probably never write steampunk, even though I love it. I’m in the middle of
in-depth theological research for a book I’m writing next year, and it’s
excruciating. I’d rather be writing.It also helps that I write
supernatural stories, so whenever something isn’t realistic, I can just answer
“Magic!” and that’s that. (Just kidding, of course. Magic has to make sense,
too.)Q. What’s your favorite genre to read? Do you write
it?Absolutely. I read anything from
horror, apocalyptic novels, and dystopias to urban fantasy, paranormal, and
erotica. Funnily enough, I don’t read nearly as much erotica, percentage-wise,
as I write. When I’m reading, I tend toward the mainstream. Maybe because I
don’t want to get squirmy at inconvenient times – not that plotting doesn’t do
that anyway.

Q. What are you working on right now? Can you
tell us about it?

Right now, I’m working on what
I hope stays a novella and doesn’t become a novel about elementals. I’m an
inordinately serious writer, sometimes, and I told myself at the beginning of
the year that I wanted to write something fun, full stop. Of course, some
serious slipped in anyway, because I’m an emotional masochist, but it’s mostly
stayed light-hearted. And hot, of course.

I’m also in the revision phase
of Winter Howl’s sequel, the
wolf-and-witch-centric Cry Wolf,
which I hope will be released into the wild before year’s end, barring a cyberpocalypse.

Q. Did you ever write a character you didn’t
like? Or one that gave you problems, going against your intentions for them or
your story?

I have, although that story’s
presently in limbo in part because
he’s as unlikable as he is pitiful. I think part of the reason I dislike that antagonist
so much is that I’m a little too much like him. Self-reflection can be a bitch.

Still, I have hopes to
self-publish that story by Summer 2014 so that everyone else can hate and be
turned on by him, too. Because I’m also an emotional sadist. Naturally.

Okay...enough with the business questions! How
about some fun stuff. You know, just between the two of us.

Q. The opportunity to go on a surprise
vacation arises. You have 90 minutes to pack and get to the airport. Where will
you go and what will you pack?

Nothing clever here. I’m an
incredibly practical packer, and since I don’t have hair or make-up stuff to
get in the way, just your standard jeans and t-shirt fare, plus two or three
books, my computer, and my stuffed biker koala, who’s my travel buddy.

And I’d go to Philadelphia.
Why? I don’t know. I’ve never been there before, and it’s been sticking around
in my head a lot.

Q. If they make a movie about your life, who
do you want to play your part?

Rooney Mara’s good with
depressed, angry, somewhat unstable female characters, right? In a less
self-deprecating selection, although I’m a big fan of Mara, I think Amber
Tamblyn’s got the awkward snarkiness down. :)

Q. Tell us one thing about you that might
surprise us...it can be a secret...we won't tell.

Ummm… I’ve got lots of secrets,
but most of them are between me and my demons. Let’s see.

You might be surprised to learn
that although I’m a big horror fan, I’m still an easy horror audience. Even if
my skeptic’s muttering in the back of my mind, I’ll still jump and sometimes scream
at the big jump scares. I have no shame. I think horror loses a little
something when you stop being scared by it.

Now what we've all been waiting for. Tell us all about that book! Your newest release with the DELICIOUS cover!

Winter Howl is my debut
erotic novel. She was a shelf-baby for a while until I finally got off my ass
(metaphorically speaking) and started sending her out. She was finally picked
up and found a happy home at Total-e-Bound.

With some downright smoldering
f/m and f/f action, who doesn’t like a classic love triangle? With
shapeshifters and werewolves?

Blurb:

Renee Chambers, a moderate-level agoraphobe,
runs a no-kill dog sanctuary that doubles as a haven for canine shapeshifters.
Britt, her best friend who also acts as Renee’s service dog, coaxes an anxious
but curious Renee into a romance that has more than a little electricity. With
her organisation running smoothly and a girlfriend who loves her, life could be
worse.

Then Grant Heath, a rogue werewolf, shows up
and turns her safe little world upside down and inside out, with a side of out
of control. She knows it’s a terrible idea, but when she’s with him, she feels
different from her tightly wound, controlled self—she almost feels normal. He
never does anything she doesn’t want, but he also doesn’t care how far he
pushes her beyond her agoraphobic limitations.

Renee finds herself caught between two
different lovers, two different worlds. Should she stay with the shapeshifters
and her sanctuary and accept being just an eccentric human being in a
supernatural world? Or should she accept Grant’s offer to change her and run
with him as a werewolf, violent and bloody, but also fearless?

Excerpt

“Looking for things
you can take with you on your little trip? Low-cut tops, short skirts, sexy
lingerie? It’s what he’s expecting from you. His little piece of human arm
candy that he’s bringing along to show off to everyone. Looking good on the fur
carpet.”

“I don’t have those
things,” Renee said. Everything she had in her closet was functional. Most of
the time, she was getting dirty or getting fur all over everything. If it
looked marginally good on her, that was just a bonus. But there was nothing for
a night on the town because she had never had one, or had expected to have one.

There was a rustle of
cotton and the sound of a zipper. Britt was undressing behind her.

“You don’t need those
things,” Britt said. “You never did. You could be covered head to toe in clumps
of mud and still have those bedroom eyes.”

Britt slid her arms
around Renee’s waist and cupped her breasts, rubbed lightly at the peaks until
Renee felt them grow harder under her bra. Britt pressed her mouth where Grant
had kissed her on the neck, covering the sensation with a new one, a new mouth.
Renee held the dresser drawer tightly with her left hand.

“Is it that he doesn’t
care about you? Because you know that he doesn’t. And you know that I do. Is it
that he’s rough?” Britt asked. “Is that why you’ll let him be with you? I can
be rough. If it’s what you need, I can give you what you need, Renee. I always
have.”

“I don’t need that from
you,” Renee answered.

Britt stroked a hand down
Renee’s stomach, brushing the waist of her jeans and slipping under. “From the
beginning, I’ve honoured your boundaries because I knew that they were
important. I knew that this is the way you are and always have been. But he
just blasted through like an explosion, with no consideration, no
understanding. What did he do to you that makes you feel like you need that?”

Britt was not
considerate or gentle as she began to press with her fingers, trying to find
the place that made Renee’s breathing hitch. When she did, Renee leaned back
into Britt’s arms and closed her eyes.

“He’s everything I’m
not. It’s not permanent, and I don’t think he’s fixing me. But for the moments
that he pushes me past all the circling thoughts and paralysing fears, I can do
things I’ve never done.” She tightened her grip on the drawer again, but this
time because she could feel the pleasure inside her tensing her up. “And in
those moments, I feel like I think a normal person does.”

“I can be what you want,” Britt said urgently.

“You are,” Renee said,
pulling Britt’s hand from her jeans and turning around. She drew Britt down and
kissed her, drawing her in, tasting her, taking her mouth. Britt moaned, losing
herself in the passion Renee only occasionally showed. Renee was completely
clothed, and Britt was completely bare. Renee stroked down from neck to thigh,
feeling every curve as though memorising them.

“Don’t you
understand?” Renee asked. She kissed a line down Britt’s sternum and bit lightly
at her left breast. “You are what I
want, and I don’t know why you ever stayed here when you could have been so
much more with someone better than me. I don’t want you to be anything other
than what you are. I’ve told you that I appreciate everything that you do for
me, even if I don’t always have the words for it.”

“You seem to be doing
very well right now,” Britt said. She tucked Renee’s hair behind her ears,
scratching her nails across the scalp the way she knew Renee liked.